Lesson no 39 Vision “A wake up call”

We as disciples of Jesus should have a vision of the Cross of Jesus and our sins that put Him there. We should have a Vision of the feet of Jesus crushing the head of Satan. We should have Vision of the resurrection of Christ.

Satan’s head was full of sin, law and death and it spilled out at the Cross and was destroyed by the feet of Christ who was born of woman, giving man the victory too. From the feet of Jesus we have received Righteousness, Grace and Life.

Q1/ Do you have a vision for yourself? (Yes or No)

Q2/ Do you have a vision for yourself and your partner? (Yes or No)

Q3/ Do you have a vision for your family? (Yes or No)

Q4/ Do you have a vision for your Job? (Yes or No)

Q5/ Do you have a vision for your Local church? (Yes or No)

Q6/ Do you have a vision for your local area, city, province, Nation and the world? (Yes or No)

If you answered “NO” for any of the questions it doesn’t mean you are going to hell. Although it could be good to spend time with God and find out if you should have a vision for them, or if you should take on someone else vision.

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he who keeps the law, he is blessed.

Please understand you do not have to pray this prayer, I have used it to give you example of my prayer in regards to vision.

O Lord give me a vision beyond the horizon that I may never see the end, but Lord God please give me wisdom to see the next step that lays in front of me. Lord it is my desire to walk in your footsteps, which you have left before me. I submit my dreams, wishes, plans, ambitions and desires for life to You, so that Your will, will be done in my life.

A vision is a direction for the future; it is not “O well, we’ll see what happens”. A vision in God is clear and it will resound in your spirit.

A.    It will bring a clear direction and have Kingdom of God characteristics.

B.    It will encompass the individuals, Local Church and the Universal Church.

C.    It will have an eye on the Harvest of souls, an outward Biblical view of the world. Missions.

D.    It will bring teaching of the Word, developing a discipleship program.

i.    The Cross.

ii.    Power of the blood.

iii.    Repentance, Forgiveness and Life.

iv.    The resurrection, His and ours.

v.    New Creation.

vi.    Victory.

Q7/ A vision will bring direction. (True or False)

Q8/ A vision will include people. (True or False)

Q9/ A Church with vision has a vision of the harvest field. (True or False)

Q10/ A church with vision will bring teaching. (True or False)

Infiltration

The enemy is trying all the time to infiltrate into a person, church and nation. A work that is moving for God and making an impact on the community is Satan greatest enemy. He will come at you through your vision or your lack of vision. He will look to pick off the weakest by making offers, which appear to be Godly.

James 5:12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

As leader of the body of Christ we should follow the teaching of the scripture because they will and are there to help us with overcoming any problems that could develop.

Q11/ The enemy can look Godly. (True or False)

Is it Yes or No

It is “OK” to say no thank you and it’s OK to say yes thank you. Any other answer is deception and deception comes from Satan. We must be clear to say what we mean and mean what we say. If you are concerned with offending a person because you said NO then you have identified that the person has a problem, but you don’t want to help them. Then you have the problem too. We need to face the battle we are in and take hold of it by following what the Word of God is saying.

Simple rule:

If you are in doubt in regards to someone or something say, “NO”. God has given us a gift of “discerning of spirits”. The feeling of doubt could identify the discerning of spirits. On the other hand the Holy Spirit will bring about the feeling of Yes and amen.

Covenant

Definition of Covenant a formal agreement between two or more nations or peoples.

When we look at the covenants throughout the Bible we see that they are directive or decrees from God to His creation. Therefore I find it hard to say that man arrives at the agreement by negotiations with God, but by acceptance of God precepts and teachings.

We never see man saying to God, “If you God will do what I want then we have an agreement”.

More importantly it is our obedience and acceptance to His word that we find freedom and victory.

Q12/ Are you in covenant relationship with your local church. (Yes or No)

Q13/ In obedience to God you will find freedom. (True or False)

If you have no vision of your own, you should make a covenant agreement with you home Church to follow their vision, submitting all plans for any outreach, teaching notes, circulars, DVDs to the leaders to see if they fit with the vision of the Church.

A covenant agreement should not be entered into lightly it has responsibilities both ways.

To distribute such materials in the local church or starting an outreach without approval is an act of rebellion and therefore falls into the area of disobedience.

No church leader has the right to stop you from looking at any materials and it may be good for you to view such materials for assessment of Biblical accuracy, but it would be wise to submit the materials for oversight approval if you want to introduce them to the Church.

John 10:11 I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. : 12 But he who is a hireling and not the shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away. And the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. : 13 The hireling flees, because he is a hireling and does not care for the sheep.  

Starting any new work has many ramifications that the leader may have some insight to. This insight may reduce the causes of pain you may experience if you go out on you own.

Please understand a true leader doesn’t want to control you but give caring directions.

Q14/ A caring Shepard only want to protect you. (True or False)

God put man out of the Garden, because of the act of rebellion and lack of repentance.

Again a leader can’t stop you if you feel you must go and start a new work, but you may lose any covering and support from the covering church.

The sheep don’t have the vision for the flock it belongs to the Shepherd and he has already laid down his life to protect the sheep. Others may come into a group and straightaway they try to change the direction of the local church without paying the price.

John 10:14 I am the Good Shepherd, and I know those that are Mine, and I am known by those who are Mine. : 15 Even as the Father knows Me, I also know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep. : 16 And I have other sheep who are not of this fold. I must also lead those, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd. : 17 Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I might take it again.

Jesus said,

i.    Mine

ii.    Father knows ME

iii.    I lay down my life

iv.    I have other sheep who are not of this fold, they shall hear My voice.

v.    One flock

vi.    One Shepherd

Q15/ God gave the vision to Jesus and not the sheep. (True or False)

Warning

Here in Matthew 7: 15 Jesus is giving a warning, “Why”? Because He knew what would happen after He had left and went to be the Father. Not only a warning but instruction on how to identify the enemy when he or she comes in.

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. : 16 You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? : 17 Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. : 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits, nor can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. : 19 Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. : 20 Therefore by their fruits you shall know them. : 21 Not everyone who says to Me, Lord! Lord! shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. : 22 Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! Lord! Did we not prophesy in Your name, and through Your name throw out demons, and through Your name do many wonderful works? : 23 And then I will say to them I never knew you! Depart from Me, those working lawlessness!

Look at the fruit of a person to see if God has sent them, check for.

o    No fruit, bad fruit and corrupt fruit.

o    No teaching of repentance, grace and life.

o    Many rules.  

o    No clear vision that can change with the wind.

Q16/ The leader will have a vision from God. (True or False)

Q17/ A person who has a vision from God will have others who follow and the fruit is good. (True or False)

If you see these things don’t stay and don’t follow and that includes here. You are free and you should study all doctrine and see if it matches with the Word of God.

Check out the vision of the leader in, it will give you a clear picture of their direction. Ask for copy of the Vision statement of the local Church and or Vision statement for the nation and see if it is what you think it should be or what you would like to be part of.

NOTE: A Vision statement should match the Word of God.

Write Down Vision.

A leader who is worth their weight in gold will make a powerful statement if he or she writes down their vision for others to see, it is a mark of the confidence in the spirit and in their faith.

Wait and be Patience.

Habakkuk points out that the vision will be written down so that all who look at it can see what will happen even if it is to take a long time, but it will come to pass.

Habakkuk 2:2 And then GOD answered: "Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. 3 This vision-message is a witness pointing to what's coming. It aches for the coming--it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time.

Commitment

We have been converted at the time of our salvation, but then a person needs to make a decision about commitment on where they are to fellowship. If you are not happy because of the teaching, chose where you will fellowship.

Matthew 6:22 The light of the body is the eye. Therefore if your eye is sound, your whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! : 24 No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Q18/ Commitment is to make a conscious decision where we will fellowship. (True or False)

Unity

We need to come to the place of maturity and make a clear decision to where we will fulfill our calling in God. God does not want us to be in bondage to any organization, which preaches control and law. Nevertheless we need to be sure that we want to be part of the vision of the Church or movement and then do everything in our power to defend the vision and maintain our observation on the vision to see that is being maintained and followed.

Philippians 1:27 Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people's trust in the Message, the good news,

Paul is clear here that we are to stand united and we could also say we the Body of Christ should stand united until Christ returns.

If the Pastor or leaders are not there, we should hold onto the Vision as though he or she is there, not allowing another to come in and destroy that which God has started.

Q19/ Our vision in God is greater than the leaders vision for the local church. (True or False)

A Song of Ascents, of David.

Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity! : 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron's beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes. : 3 It is like the dew of Hermon Coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forever.

Unity is a powerful dynamic of Gods Kingdom when the brothers and sisters dwell together with a common vision, there God will command a blessing.

You are free to stay and you are free to go, but if you stay you are not free to have a different vision for the local church or movement that is in opposition to the leader or leaders.

Lack of submission is a work that is not from God.

Q20/ Unity brings great blessing to all in the fellowship.